Activist sues to get Detroit demolition records

Women hold signs for the media thanking the city of Detroit as they watch the City of Detroit Construction Services workers tear down an abandoned structure across from Bennett Elementary School in Detroit on Thursday, May 12, 2016.(Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo

A local activist today filed yet another lawsuit against the administration of the City of Detroit's demolition program — this time challenging a proposed $47,000 bill and a wait of more than two years to access public records already handed over to federal investigators.

The lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court is the latest of multiple suits Davis has filed since late last year against agencies running the city's demolition program: the Detroit Land Bank Authority and the Detroit Building Authority. The documents he is seeking were provided to federal investigators in response to two subpoenas that were unsealed for public view only after Davis sued to release them.

Detroit Land Bank spokesman Craig Fahle declined to comment on the lawsuit, which wasassigned to the same judge who ordered the public release of the federal subpoenas in an earlier Davis court challenge, Wayne Circuit Judge David Allen. The subpoenas showed federal investigators ordered the Land Bank and the Detroit Building Authority to provide phone records and other documents for more than 30 people involved in Detroit's demolition program.

The Office of the Special Inspector General for the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program and the FBI are investigating the program, which has been allocated about $250 million in federal funds to tear down thousands of blighted properties throughout the city. The investigation was made public about a year ago after media reports showed demolition costs skyrocketed under Mayor Mike Duggan's administration.

Right after the subpoenas were released in late December, Davis (and, separately, the Free Press) filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the records investigators requested. Davis' FOIA request was granted, but it would cost $47,075. The response to the Free Press cited the same cost.

Lawyers for the city's demolition program attributed the five-figure cost and two-and-a-half year wait to labor expenses and time it would take to comb through and remove exempt information from the extensive documents provided to investigators.

Davis contends the documents already have been vetted because, according to the Land Bank's response to his FOIA request, duplicates were saved.

"In spite of the fact that the documents requested by plaintiff are admittedly readily accessible and are compiled, defendants Land Bank Authority and its board of directors want to charge plaintiff and other members of the media an excessive fee to produce said public documents," according to the lawsuit, which was filed by Davis' nonprofit, A Felon's Crusade for Equality, Honesty and Truth. The name references Davis' conviction in 2014 for stealing money from the Highland Park public school district when he was a board member.

Even though the records already have been provided to authorities, the Land Bank has said they must be reviewed again "because the standard of review for purposes of disclosure under a subpoena is different from a disclosure under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act," according to its FOIA response to the Free Press for the same records Davis is seeking.

Davis also is challenging the $47,000 fee based on his belief the Land Bank cannot charge any such fees because its board of directors has failed to adopt a FOIA policy as required under state law. The lawsuit says Davis has reviewed the Land Bank's board meeting minutes since 2015 and has found no evidence a policy has been adopted.